Johnston Press, the British newspaper group which owns Irish papers including the Leinster Leader and Kilkenny People, has reported a 10.5 per cent increase in advertising revenues in the Republic in the five months to June 2nd.

In a pre-close trading update issued yesterday ahead of its interim results, due at the end of August, Johnston Press said that the strong performance in the Republic compared with a soft market in the UK.

Back in March, the company said that, like for like, UK advertising revenue in the first nine weeks of the year was 2.9 per cent down on the same period last year. For the five months to June 2nd, advertising revenue, including digital sources, was down 2.3 per cent, the group said.

A spokeswoman for the company yesterday attributed the strong performance in Ireland to the buoyant economy and in particular the low levels of unemployment. She said that the recent interest rate increases appeared to be having less of an effect on the Irish market than the British.

Johnston Press bought the Leinster Leader Group for €139 million in 2005 and also owns, among others, the Longford Leader, Leitrim Observer and the Dundalk Democrat.

In the statement, Johnston Press said that the revenue performance and outlook was consistent with that anticipated by the board at the start of the year and, as a result, the directors expected a satisfactory outcome for the year as a whole.